Horse Riding and My Knee Pain

The weather in Oklahoma has been wet. . . no it has been reeeeaalllly wet . . .  no it’s monsoon season!!!!  It rained 21 days straight recently this last month.  There were days the rain was close to 4″ in a 24 hour span.  That caused some flooding in the low areas, but generally just made everything sloshy & extremely muddy.  The mud in places was over ankle deep.  This type of weather is not conducive to riding.  So, my horses have had a 3 week vacation.

Fortunately, Mother Nature graced us with dry & rather hot HUMID weather this past week.  The pasture & arena dried out.  The weather this morning was absolutely beautiful.  I couldn’t wait to get out the barn to ride.

Dollar was not covered in mud, so grooming him was easy.  After saddling-up, we were off to take the first lesson in over a month.  For being off for so long, we actually had a good ride.  He was a little rusty in bending his body into the turns, so I had to school him a little.  Dollar is the lazy , almost bomb-proof type horse.  He wanted to do his lazy toe dragging walk and didn’t want to trot at all.  That was way too much work for a horse that thought he was still on vacation.

We managed to get through the entire lesson with only one small incident.  He actually spooked at his shadow or it could have been the goose nearby . .  I don’t know.  He only crouches down to the ground a little when he spooks, which is hardly ever.  We worked on backing, small & large circles and the gate.  He did all of this pretty well.

Me on the other hand . . .  my legs were getting tired.  My ankles felt like I was trying to break them.  My thighs & seat felt like I had been sitting on a rock for an eternity.  This was only halfway through the lesson.    I knew then that I had been off my horse too long.  By Monday, I’m going to be very sore.  

The worst of the pains for me is my knees.  I have moderate arthritis in both knees.  When I’ve had a layoff from riding, my knees tend to get extremely painful & a bit swollen.  I guess I need to find some type of exercise that will keep me in shape.  It’s really amazing to me just how short of time your muscles and joints forget things.

Maybe, I should just teach my horses how to scuba or water ski when there is rainy weather like this.  At least that way I won’t get so sore from not being able to ride.